The closing event for CREATE’s Community Day 2025, the Research Showcase was co-sponsored by HuskyADAPT. Spring 2025 Research Showcase projects Accessibility from Below Stacy Hsueh, Danielle Van Dusen, Anat Caspi, Jennifer Mankoff An ethnographic study on how low-income and racially diverse disabled families navigate government services to access the assistive technologies they need. Through extended fieldwork at a Seattle nonprofit, we uncovered community-based strategies of care, resistance, and improvisation that families use to reclaim agency. These strategies offer practical insights…
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People and News
Social Stories to Help Family Members with Autism: Lessons from Panama
April 6, 2026 For individuals with autism and their families, navigating social situations, especially new or unpredictable ones, can be difficult. Research led by CREATE faculty member Annuska Zolyomi has shown that families in Panama have used storytelling to help prepare their children with autism for social situations. Zolyomi’s research, in turn, has led to development of a therapeutic app built off the importance of storytelling in Panamanian culture. Not yet released, the Mystoria app uses what the developers call…
CHI 2026: Papers and Presentations on Accessibility
March 23, 2026 Accessibility-related papers, presentations, and workshops from CREATE researchers at CHI 2026, the ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. We appreciate your patience as we continue to update this page. Congratulations to CREATE associate director Jon E. Froehlich, who will be honored with a Societal Impact Award at the 2026 SIGCHI Conference in Barcelona! Papers Ability heuristics for conducting accessibility inspections Claire Mitchell, Judy Kong (Ph.D. student), Jesse Martinez (Ph.D. student), Sean Kane (Ph.D. graduate and CREATE advisory council…
A Study in Cross-Cultural Relationship Building and Community-Based Research
March 10, 2026 CREATE faculty member Annuska Zolyomi co-led a collaborative exploration of how technology could help autistic individuals and their families. Celebrating Neurodiversity: Ichi-go Ichi-e Symposium, held in Tokyo in 2023, brought together thought leaders in HCI research and autism communities from Japan, North America, and Europe to explore neurodiversity in the Japanese context. Zolyomi, an assistant professor in Computing & Software Systems at UW Bothell, is the lead writer on a paper about the symposium and outcomes from…
OpenThePaths: Connecting people & places through ethical AI
March 9, 2026 If you drive, you’ve probably used route-finding apps with reasonable success. But these tools do not take into consideration people with mobility challenges who need information about sidewalks, not roads. Washington State’s first map of pedestrian infrastructure, OS-CONNECT, was a main topic at the recent OpenThePaths Conference. Organized by CREATE associate director Anat Caspi, the conference was attended by policymakers, city planners, disability advocates, and technology professionals. Caspi is an affiliate assistant professor in electrical and computer…
Ed Summers joins CREATE’s advisory board
March 2, 2026 The Head of Accessibility at GitHub, Ed Summers also serves on disability-related government and not-for-profit boards. As a blind software engineer and leader of accessibility programs within large technology companies, Summers’ personal mission is to enable people with disabilities to realize their full potential in the classroom and the 21st century knowledge economy. “Accessibility is a team sport. It requires contributions from industry, academia, government, and advocacy organizations, just to name a few. Each sector has a…
Kane, Jayant, Wobbrock, Ladner: 2025 SIGACCESS ASSETS Paper Impact Award
March 6, 2026 A paper on mobile device accessibility and co-authored by CREATE leaders was honored with the 10-Year Lasting Impact Award at the International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’25). The 2009 ACM ASSETS paper, Freedom to roam: A study of mobile device adoption and accessibility for people with visual and motor disabilities, found that people with disabilities had to find ways to adapt to inaccessible technology. The team developed guidelines for more accessible and empowering…
Richard Ladner: SIGCSE Outstanding Contribution to CS Education Award
March 5, 2026 The award cited Ladner’s contributions to accessible computer science education at the K-12, college, and graduate levels and was given “in recognition of long-lasting efforts to develop new technologies and activities to engage people, particularly children, in creative learning experiences based on computational literacy for discovery and expression.” Richard Ladner, CREATE founding Director for Education Emeritus and Professor Emeritus, Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering Ladner’s work has had a profound impact on the accessibility of…
CREATE Researchers Honored, 2025-26
March 3, 2026 In the 2025-26 academic year, CREATE researchers have received prestigious awards for their work in accessibility. Congratulations to these leaders in accessibility innovation! Jon E. Froehlich: SIGCHI Societal Impact Award CREATE associate director Jon E. Froehlich will be honored with a Societal Impact Award at the 2026 SIGCHI Conference in Barcelona this spring. As fellow CREATE associate director Jacob O. Wobbrock noted, “His research in urban accessibility has achieved what few HCI researchers ever accomplish: direct, measurable…
Jon E. Froehlich Honored with SIGCHI Societal Impact Award
March 3, 2026 As fellow CREATE associate director Jacob O. Wobbrock noted, “His research in urban accessibility has achieved what few HCI researchers ever accomplish: direct, measurable change on a global scale. Specifically, Froehlich’s work has affected how cities invest in pedestrian infrastructure, how communities and governments in 40+ cities plan for accessibility, and how federal agencies define walkability and accessibility data standards. Froehlich’s societal impact has been measurable and huge!” Froehlich’s work on accessible maps (CHI 2019 Best Paper…
Adaptive Solutions Mini-Hackathon: 2026 Recap
February 26, 2026 In January, CREATE and HuskyADAPT teamed up with the King County Library System (KCLS) to host a mini-hackathon to brainstorm and prototype solutions to accessibility problems. After an introduction to five real-world requests submitted by the disability community, participants self-selected their projects and got to work building their prototypes. These diverse teams of makers, researchers, disability professionals, and volunteers were assisted by community co-designers and design leads. They worked in KCLS’s Bellevue Makerspace using moldable thermoplastic, cardboard,…
Hackfest project for children with cerebral palsy goes on to win design awards
January 29, 2026 In 2024, students Lige Yang and Richard Li teamed up at the CREATE AI+Accessibility Hackfest to explore the concept of an AI tool that could monitor a person’s seated position, identify when they are in a posture that could cause injury or worsen an existing condition, and alert a caretaker with accurate, recommended corrections. Yang has continued developing the design. From hackfest idea submitted by a parent… The project idea was submitted by Max Smoot, the parent…
Hala Annabi to lead new UW Institute for Neurodiversity and Employment
October 21, 2025 The institute will bring together an interdisciplinary team of leading scholars, practitioners, and employers. Together they will work to build the capacity of the UW, Washington state, and the nation to create neuroinclusive employment opportunities and advance the career possibilities for neurodivergent people. Annabi is a leading scholar on neurodiversity and employment and is an associate professor in the Information School. Her work in this space includes the publication of a series of Neurodiversity @ Work Playbooks…
2025 Race, Disability and Technology Funded Research
September 22, 2025 We are happy to report that this year we received more applications for the RDT grants than in previous years. We also received more applications from outside of CREATE, possibly a sign of our increased outreach to and visibility on campus, and certainly an indication of the importance of this grant mechanism to research efforts across the university. Learn more The Race, Disability, and Technology Initiative Call for Proposals – Race, Disability, and Technology Tier I project:…
With new NIH funding, CREATE postdoc Bethany Sloane continues research for children with cerebral palsy, motor delays
September 15, 2025 Exploration and self-initiated mobility are known to support growth in learning, communication, social skills, and play. Yet, due to limited training, funding, or access to different types of devices, powered mobility devices are often underused in early intervention and pediatric therapy settings. Bethany Sloane’s research is focused on addressing these issues, to ensure that children under the age of three have opportunities to explore their environments and participate in daily life through mobility. She aims to create…
Blind and Low Vision Teens Join CREATE through YES2 Summer Internships
September 3, 2025 The Washington Department of Services for the Blind (DSB) program, called Youth Employment Solutions 2, provides experience, instruction, and paid 5-week summer internships. The students share a house, have job placements, and learn skills in using public transportation for travel to work sites. When ready, the students commute to their jobs independently. Statistics indicate that more than 70% of blind adults are either unemployed or under-employed, in jobs unequal to their education. However, evidence also indicates that…
ASSETS 2025: CREATE Papers, Presentations and Demos
August 27, 2025 CREATE faculty, students, and alumni will be well represented at ASSETS 2025 in Denver this fall. In addition to the papers and experience reports listed below, these CREATE members are part of the ASSETS 2025 Program Committee: CREATE associate director Leah Findlater and several CREATE postdoctoral researchers: Emma McDonnell (also a CREATE Ph.D. graduate), Jazette Johnson, Stacy Hsueh, and postdoc alum Tamanna Motahar. Awards CREATE’s impact on educating accessibility leaders is reflected by awards to our Ph.D….
Next Steps: People of CREATE Updates
June 11, 2025 Congratulations to students and postdocs on a productive academic year! Join us in celebrating these career steps. Graduation Congratulations to CREATE member Anant Mittal, a newly minted Ph.D., for completing his program and successfully defending his thesis! During his program, Mittal, advised by James Fogarty, worked on the design and development of Jod, a videoconferencing platform to facilitate communication in mixed hearing groups. Mittal’s final thesis focused on designing, implementing, and examining systems for communication, collaboration, and…
Community Day 2025 Recap
June 5, 2025 Thank you to all who attended Community Day and to our community partners and panel members for lively, informative conversations! Learn about this year’s Community Day and Research Showcase events and subscribe to the CREATE mailing list for updates on accessibility research. 2025 panel discussions This year, our panel discussions focused on current legal challenges to access and rights and explore how accessible technology research makes it from the lab to the real world. The panels were followed by our…
GAAD Day 2025 Interview with CREATE Director Jennifer Mankoff
Dr. Mankoff, a professor in the Information School and the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, will speak at the UW’s GAAD mid-day program on Thursday, May 15. What initially drew you to the intersection of computing, accessibility, and disability studies? I was a computer scientist first—and then I became disabled. That personal shift made me start thinking about how technology could better meet my needs. My first faculty position was at UC Berkeley, which was at…